감각하는 재료, 채집되는 손, 서로를 듣는 순간
참여작가ㅣ김지수, 제닌기, 최병석  

정원문화를 현대미술로 해석해온 블루메미술관의 네번째 시리즈 전시는 정원에서의 대화법에 주목한다. 코로나19 팬데믹 시대 정원안에서의 소통방식을 살펴보며 인간과 자연의 관계를 다시 바라보고자 한다. 살아있는 정원의 재료와 마주하는 정원사의 관점에 물질재료를 대하는 3명 현대미술작가들의 작업을 비추어 보며 주체와 대상의 구분이 모호하고 때로 전도되기도 하며 끊임없이 진동하고 있는 듯한 세계의 본질에 대해 생각해보고자 한다. 재료에는 뜻이 있는가? 재료는 어떤 일을 이루고자 하는가? 능동의 언어로 주체라는 개념을 포섭하며 대상을 분리시킨 이분법적인 관점에서 멀어진 후에도 여전히 세계는 행위하는 주체를 중심으로 읽혀 나가고 있다. 그러나 주체가 아닌 ‘개체’라는 개념으로, 지각대상을 ‘수동적 종합의 결과가 아니라 통일성과 역동성을 가진 에너지적 상태’라 본 20세기 철학자 질베르 시몽동의 관점과 같이 매일 마주하는 세상에서 존재방식에 대한 사고는 끊임없이 흐르고 풀어지고를 계속해 나가고 있다. 그 흐름과 풀어짐을 추동하는 계기는 여럿 있을 것이다. 그 중에 이 전시는 정원을 말하고자 한다. 삶과 예술안에 모두 걸쳐 있는 ‘재료’라는 개념을 중심으로 정원을 통해 존재와 관계방식을 이야기하고자 한다. 정원문화를 현대미술을 통해 이야기하는 시리즈 중 하나로 이 전시는 하나로 대상화된 사물로서의 재료가 아닌 ‘능동적 질료’개념으로서 재료와의 유기적 상호작용에 기반한 작업들을 통해 살아있는 생명체와 마주하는 정원에서의 소통방식을 읽어보고자 한다. 정원 안에서 일어나는 발화와 경청의 행위들에서 예술가들이 물질을 대하는 관점과 태도를 발견하며 이러한 유기적인 소통현상 그 자체 또는 도구로 대변되는 물질재료와의 대화법을 보여주는 작가들을 조명하고자 한다. 작가의 재료와 정원의 재료를 대비시키며 이를 통해 정원문화가 품고 있는 생태적 관계방식의 동시대적 가치와 의미를 확장시키고자 한다. 무엇을 하고자 하는 의지는 모든 것에 퍼져 있다. 모든 것이 듣고자 하고 말하고자 한다. 모두가 서로에게 재료인 것이고 실체가 중심이 아니라 관계가 모든 작동의 지렛대가 되어 의지가 있는 모든 것을 살게 하는 것이다.

후원ㅣ한국문화예술위원회
기획ㅣ김은영
진행 및 교육ㅣ김소영, 허은, 박유진, 신은률, 이회남, 한아름
글ㅣ김은영
디자인ㅣ엄진아
사진ㅣ박현욱

Sensing materials, collected hands, and a moment to listen to each other
Participating artistsㅣKim Jeesoo, Jenin Kii, Choi Byeongseok

The fourth exhibition of the series curated by the Blume Museum of Contemporary Art which has continuously interpreted garden culture pays heed to a dialogic method in the garden. The exhibition tried to reconsider the relationship between humans and nature, thereby examining ways of communication in the garden in the corona era. It is intended to review the nature of the world in which it is not easy to draw a line between the subject and the object and in which a reversal of the relationship between a host and a guest occurs. Is there any meaning in materials? What do materials try to achieve? After departing from any dichotomous concept couched in active language, the world is still primarily conducted by the subject of an action. Like the perspective of Gilbert Simondon, a 20th century French philosopher who saw the “object of perception as a state of energy with unity and dynamism,” the concept of “object,” is a way of existence that continually flows and dishevels itself. There might be different causes to motivate this flow and disheveling. One of them in this exhibition is intended to touch on the garden. It tries to tackle existence and relationships, focusing primarily on the concept of material straddling life and art. As a series that views garden culture through the prism of contemporary art, this art show makes a foray into interpreting communication in a garden of organic interactions with elements as “active materials,” a concept coined by Simondon. Artists’ perspectives and attitudes toward matter are discovered in actions of uttering and listening that take place in the garden. Choi Byeongseok’s work is an example of a person who listens and pays attention to their will and language. When making something that considers its use and function such as A Rabbit Trap Considering Rabbits and Technique Turning a Dog’s Mind, Choi listened to what a tool says rather than what the hands of its user might say. His will to listen more carefully is revealed in Tired Grid, a new work that does not consider any use or function. Sandpapering plywood that consists of thin hard layers, Choi displays the plywood’s unrestrictedly bent, elegant, and elongated shapes. He captures some point of vibrations his materials have not as a passive while accepting a moving subject. Kim Jeesoo holds that things with invisible will are seen if replaced by a sense of sight with a sense of smell as the main sense. A plant may be deemed a stationary object doing nothing from the standpoint of an animal that looks ahead with its eyes and travels by moving its arms and legs, but it travels much farther away, enters into a relationship, and communicates through smell. Kim has researched the sense of smell and its physical, biological effect. She shows that our point of view undergoes changes by reconsidering the hierarchy of every sensation through works couched in human modes of expression such as drawing, text, and video. The Gathering Garden and The Floating Garden in which viewers meet objects through the medium of smell demonstrates a preexisting mode of communication and enables viewers to experience an invisible conversational method in the garden. Jenin Kii pays heed to actions in the garden. She created a garden in which every element cuts others as well as itself and only the skeleton of an action is left behind, paying attention to the fact that there is a psychological pushing and pulling between humans through the action of “cutting.” She also created an abstract figuration of the rose that is neither a natural object nor a cultural object as it has been manipulated by humans. Called the scientific name Rosa x hybrida, the rose has been modified and improved by humans and selectively evolved over centuries. Looking back into this aspect, she asks us to view the relationship between humans and nature including respect and dispute from a broad perspective. The position of subject and object and the viewpoint of an action appear unfixed and shaking in the garden. This exhibition is designed to shed light on works by artists who show a way of talking with materials based on an organic perspective. With the artists’ materials in comparison with the garden’s materials, this exhibition is intended to expand an ecological view of entering into relations with garden culture. Everything has its will to do something. It tries to hear and say something. One thing is the material for another, while one’s relationship with others enables this thing to have the will to live its life as the lever of all works.